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bert's cavalry, or some portion of it, and the Confederate cav alry officers Rosser and Lomax; but Early, though moving uneasily up and down the Valley from Mount Jackson or New Market to Fisher's Hill, carefully avoided any thing like a general engagement, and in December sent a part of his forces to strengthen General Lee.

SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA.

In Southwestern Virginia, during the period we have traversed and the early winter of 1864, there was a desultory campaign, to which we should briefly refer.

footed and ragged, is far more to be envied than he that is laden with rich spoils gathered in the trail of his victorious comrades. There were some exceptions to the general misconduct on the afternoon of the 19th, but it would be difficult to specify them all. Let those who did their duty be satisfied with the consciousness of having done it, and mourn that their efforts were paralyzed by the misbehavior of others. Let them be consoled, to some extent, by the reflection that the enemy has nothing to boast of on his part.

The artillery and wagons taken were not won by his valor. His camps were destroyed; his army terribly shattered and demoralized; his losses far heavier than ours, even in proportion to the relative strength of the armies; his plans materially impeded; and he was unable to pursue by reason of his crippled condition. Soldiers of the Army of the Valley, I do not speak to you in anger; I wish to speak in kindness, though in sorrow. My purpose is to show you the cause of our late misfortune, and point out the way to avoid similar ones in future, and insure success to our arms. Success can only be secured by the enforcement and observance of the most rigid discipline. Officers, whatever their rank, must not only give orders, but set the example of obeying them, and the men must follow that example.

Fellow-soldiers, I am ready to lead you again in defence of our common cause; and I appeal to you by the remembrance of the glorious career in which you have formerly participated, by the woes of your bleeding country, the ruined homes and devastated fields you see around you, the cries of anguish which come up from the widows and orphans of your dead comrades, the horrors which await you and all that is yours in the future, if your country is subjugated, and your hopes of freedom for yourselves and your posterity, to render a cheerful and willing obedience to the rules of discipline, and to shoulder your musket again with the determination never more to turn your backs upon the foe, but to do battle like men and soldiers until the last vestige of the footsteps of our barbarous and cruel enemies is erased from the soil they desecrate, and the independence of our country is firmly established. If you will do this, and rely upon the protecting care of a just and merciful God, all will be well; you will again be what you once were, and I will be proud to lead you once more to battle.

J. A. EARLY, Lieutenant-General.

On the 2d of October, General Breckinridge, who had relieved Echols in Southwestern Virginia, encountered Burbridge, who was advancing on the salt-works at Saltville, Virginia, and on the banks of the Holtston River defeated him, giving him a severe lesson. In November, Breckinridge, having joined Vaughn in East Tennessee, defeated the Yankee General Gillem, at Morristown, taking four hundred prisoners; and on the 18th of the month, engaged and defeated the enemy again at Strawberry Plains.

On the 20th of December, the salt-works at Saltville were captured by the Yankees, who in the early part of the month had been raiding on the Tennessee road. Our forces there were attacked by the whole force of Burbridge, numbering about five thousand. The fight was kept up all the evening, mainly with artillery, our forces being commanded by Colonel Preston, and numbering, it is said, not more than three hundred and fifty. When night fell they still held their own; but, under cover of the darkness, the Yankees succeeded in reaching Fort Breckinridge, one of the main defences of the place, in overpowering numbers, and captured it. Colonel Preston, deeming it impractible to hold the works longer, then ordered the evacuation. The works were fired the next morning. The Yankees did not remain long, and left for East Tennessee. At Abingdon, they destroyed two entire blocks of buildings.

CHAPTER VII.

Mr. Lincoln's extraordinary triumph.-Reassembling of the Richmond Congress.President Davis' review of the situation.--A memorable boast.-New demands of the Confederate conscription.--Military resources of the North and South compared.-Plethoric wealth of the North.-" Twenty against one."-Two advantages the South had in the war.-Its conditions of success.-The value of endurance on the part of the South.--THE HOOD-SHERMAN CAMPAIGN.--Speeches at headquarters. -Hood commences his march.-Capture of Dalton.-Sherman follows as far as Gaylesville. He turns back.-Georgia and South Carolina "at his mercy."—An extraordinary campaign.- Hood and Sherman marching away from each other.Hood crosses into Tennessee.-The Yankee retreat to Franklin.-THE BAttle of FRANKLIN.-Great loss in Confederate officers.-The enemy retreats to Nashville.BATTLE OF NASHVILLE.-The giving way of Bates' division.-A shameful stampede. -Hood's losses.-The whole scheme of Confederate defence west of the Alleghanies broken down.-The errors of Hood's campaign.

WE have already stated that the military successes of the two or three preceding months secured the re-election of President Lincoln on the 8th of November. His re-election was singularly triumphant. General McClellan received only the electoral vote of Delaware (3), Kentucky (11), and New Jersey (7), 21 in all. Mr. Lincoln received that of the remaining 22 States, 213 in all. Mr. Lincoln had the vote of all the States which he received in 1860, with the exception of the half vote of New Jersey, which was cast for him in consequence of a division in the opposition party. Besides these, he received the 7 electoral votes of Maryland, which in 1860 were cast for Mr. Breckinridge; the 11 votes of Missouri, cast for Douglas; and the 11 votes of the new States of Kansas, West Virginia, and Nevada. In the States which voted at this election, there was in 1860 a popular majority of about 100,000 against Mr. Lincoln; the popular majority in his favor now was about 300,000.

A few days before this election, the Confederate Congress. had reassembled in Richmond. The message of President Davis opened with an ingenious review of the campaign of 1864. "At the beginning of the year," he said, "Texas was partially in the possession of the enemy; now no Federal soldiers

were in the State, except as prisoners. In Northwestern Louisiana, a large Federal army and fleet had been defeated, and had only escaped with a loss of one-third of its numbers, and a large part of its munitions and vessels. Arkansas had been nearly recovered; and the Confederate forces had penetrated into Missouri. On the east of the Mississippi, in spite of some reverses, the Confederates had been on the whole successful; Northern and Western Mississippi, Northern Alabama, and Western Tennessee were in their possession. On the seacoast, the successes of the Federals had been confined to the capture of the outer defences of Mobile Bay. Their armies had been defeated in different parts of Virginia; and after a series of defeats around Richmond, they were still engaged in the effort, commenced four months before, to capture Petersburg. The army of Sherman, though it had captured Atlanta, had gained no real advantage beyond the possession of a few fortified points which could be held only by large garrisons, and were menaced with recapture."

President Davis concluded his review with a memorable boast. "The Confederacy," he declared, "had no vital points. If Richmond, and Wilmington, and Charleston, and Savannah, and Mohile were all captured, the Confederacy would remain. as defiant as ever, and no peace would be made which did not recognize its independence."

The Confederate President, while professing to see no cause for despondency in the military situation, took occasion to recommend the repeal of all laws granting exemption from military service. He said that "no position or pursuit should relieve any one who is able to do active duty from the enrolment in the army," unless he could be more useful in another sphere, and this could not be the case with entire classes. The military authorities should have the power to exempt individuals only, whose services may be more valuable in than out of the army. In regard to the question of the employment of slaves in the army, Mr. Davis recommended that slaves to the number of 40,000 should be "acquired" by the general government, who should be employed not merely as ordinary laborers, cooks, and teamsters, but as engineer and pioneer laborers. He recommended that these slaves should be liberated on their discharge, after faithful service, rather than that

they should be manumitted at once, or retained in servitude. He was opposed, under present circumstances, to arming the slaves; but he added: "The subject is to be viewed solely in the light of policy and our social economy. Should the alternative ever be presented of subjugation or of the employment of the slave as a soldier, there seems to be no reason to doubt what then should be our decision."

We have, at different periods in the history of the war, instituted a comparison between the material resources of the belligerents. They were terribly unequal at this period. Mr. Lincoln, in his message to Congress, referred to a fact which could not be denied: that the steady expansion of population, improvement, and governmental institutions over the new and unoccupied portion of the North had scarcely been checked, much less impeded or destroyed by the war. New and immense resources had been recently developed by the enemy; and it seemed, indeed, that providential circumstances had come to his aid in the war. The discovery and development of petroleum had added immensely to the national wealth, and it was calculated that in a few years it would become an article of export to the extent of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. Mineral resources, almost fabulous, had been brought to light. What once seemed a barren and uninhabit able waste, between the Atlantic States and those which had grown up on the Pacific Ocean, had proved a new El Dorado. It was estimated that the products of the mines of gold, silver, and cinnabar in that region had, in the past year, exceeded one hundred millions of dollars. It was discovered that a vast belt of some one or two hundred miles in width and eight or nine hundred in length, embracing portions of Idaho, Nevada, acd Arizona, was rich in silver ore. The North had become suddenly plethoric with wealth; and for men and material for the purposes of war, it had the whole world to draw

upon.

A Yankee newspaper said: "We have now over twenty-six millions of people within the Union lines, against less than five millions (over one-half negro slaves) within the lines of Davis. All things considered, the actual, positive available strength of Lincoln against Davis is more than twenty against one. The war, then, should be, at the furthest, brought to an end

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